Dragons and Tigers
by theforgetfulalchemist
Summary: Taiga and Ryuuji, ten years after they met, expecting their first child, discuss the merits of tigers and dragons.
1. Chapter 1

"Woah!"

Taiga, overburdened by a laundry basket and a gradually swelling stomach, suddenly rocketed backwards from the third step from the stair landing.

"Oh for the love of..." Ryuuji muttered as he deftly caught his wife who was tumbling down the stairs. For the fourth time. That day.

He grabbed her by the waist, just barely saving Taiga and their unborn child from falling to their deaths.

In the ten years he had known her, she had not grown so much as a centimeter and she was just as clumsy. Pregnancy apparently did not change her reckless attitude a fact that infuriated Ryuuji to no end.

Never mind he was already worried about her small body holding up under the exhausting work of carrying and delivering a child.

Never mind he was worried genetics were against their child who would probably either look like a Yakuza or be the size of a gnome, influencing his life before they were even born.

No, he had to play damage control, seeing to it that his wife didn't kill herself every other day.

"Dammit, I told you, you _wait_ for me when you walk upstairs!"

"Ryuuji, I'm not a child," Taiga said in mild indignation, unraveling herself from his grasp.

"No, but you have a child _with you_ who's expecting you to take care of him while he's waiting to be born."

He gently rubbed her stomach which promptly bumped his hand as the baby kicked.

Ryuuji grinned, his face flush with happiness and pride.

"Did you feel that? He kicked! It's the first time I've felt him kick!"

"Congratulations you've graduated from being beat up by me, to your unborn son," Taiga laughed.

But Ryuuji was too excited to respond to her playful jab.

"Good boy," he said, "Now listen to Daddy...you look like Mommy, okay? You don't want to come out of there with Daddy's ugly mug, believe me..."

"Shut up, Ryuuji, don't tell him that!" Taiga swatted him gently. "You have a great face. I married that face. Do not insult the face."

"I look like a thug!"

Taiga gave him a serious look. "But you're not."

"But I look like I am." he insisted.

Taiga took his hand and cupped his face, kissing him sweetly on the lips.

"But you're not," she repeated, "I fell in love with you because you're a great person even if you look like Scarface's bastard child. "

"Hey, now..."

"And our son," she paused thoughtfully, "will be a great person too. Like his Daddy. I don't care what they look like. They're still our child."

Ryuuji looked at her softly. He grinned again.

"You're right. I fell in love with you because you weren't as big a bully as you pretended..."

She snorted. "You wish, mongrel..."

"...so even if he's a tiny, psycho looking _mutt..."_ at the last word he tickled her teasingly and she strained not to laugh.

"...he'll still be a good person. Because we'll raise him to be. Right?"

Taiga looked up at him, face red from restrained laughter and flush from his words.

"Right,"

She gripped his hand...

* * *

...She gripped his hand as the last of her contractions left and the baby boy, somewhat premature, was laid on her belly.

Ryuuji was crying and stroking her hair and their son's cheeks as he wailed his first breaths of life. A fighter. A dragon. A tiger.

"He's gorgeous," he managed through his tears.

Taiga brushed her baby's thin black hair, not loosening her grip on her husband's hand.

"We'll have to wait for him to open his eyes to see if he got your face, Ryuuji."

"Mmm," Ryuuji gulped, brushing his tears and taking deep breaths to calm himself.

"Think he'll be as short as me? He's pretty tiny..."

Ryuuji grinned. "Who cares?"

Taiga smiled blissfully. "Yeah, you're right."

Because he was there and alive and healthy and beautiful and _theirs._

Because their child would be a dragon _and_ a tiger, the best of both of them.

Because if he was small and looked like a thug, all it would mean was that there was another palmtop tiger in the world.

 _A/N: I finally got around to watching ToraDora! And even though I'm not very far in it, I really like it. I guess I have a soft spot for bullies-turned-friend/love interest plots and I love nurturing mama!Ryuuji. The idea of him fussing over a pregnant Taiga amused me hence this story. I also really love in the show how both Taiga and Ryuuji feel frustrated and boxed in by how people see them partly by how they look,a so I wanted to write a story where they worry about this with their own kid. By the way, they are 27 in this story and they call the child a boy because they already found out it was going to be a boy._

 _Thank you for reading and feel free to review if you are so inclined!_


	2. Chapter 2

It was a beautiful summer's day that Ryuuji walked through, jostling his shopping bags as he scuttled down the narrow street. He had to hurry home before the pints of ice cream he was carrying melted.

It was a lazy Sunday and the hottest day of the year so predictably his wife had demanded ice cream. He was so hot and so comfortable by the fan that he was tempted to say no.

But then Taiga set her secret weapon on him. Takeshi.

Their son was barely three, short and stout with baby fat and with several small milk teeth that gleamed when he grinned or laughed. And he loved ice cream even more than his mother.

"Ice cream! Ice cream!" he babbled, toddling his way onto his father's lap. "Daddy's bringing ice cream!"

Ryuuji sighed.

"Yeah, yeah...Daddy's bringing ice cream."

He had a hard enough time resisting his wife's request. The urge to take care of her had been deeply ingrained in him since their youth and he loved her more than anything.

Unfortunately for his plans of lying by the fan all afternoon, he also loved his son more than anything. They were both his treasures, and with a double team up against him he stood no chance.

And that was how he found himself hustling home with two pints of strawberry ice cream.

He turned the key and opened the door.

"I'm ho-"

"ICE CREAM!"

It was a full frontal assault and again he stood no chance. Both Taiga and Takeshi leaped for him, ripped the bag from his hands and began to devour the contents.

"Lord," Ryuuji sighed, scooping up his wife in one arm and his son in the other.

"Ryuuji!," Taiga protested. "Put me down!"

"Ice cream, Daddy!" Takeshi insisted.

"You can have your ice cream but you have to eat out of a bowl," Ryuuji said firmly, carrying his family under each arm to the living room.

He made them wait as he fixed three bowls of ice cream.

"I asked for pistachio," Taiga said mildly.

"Whatever," Ryuuji chuckled, wiping red goop from his son's mouth with a rag.

Ryuuji settled back by the fan and ate his treat leisurely.

Taiga and Takeshi had finished and the boy was sitting on his mother's lap as she tickled his feet.

The cicada's buzzed pleasantly. His wife and son's laughter gently pierced the hot air. It was peaceful. It was...nice.

Ryuuji smiled and pat Taiga on the head. She stopped tickling Takeshi to look at him questioningly.

"I guess that Legend of the Palmtop Tiger crap was real," Ryuuji said. "I've been touching you for years and I'm the happiest guy ever."

Taiga smiled and leaned in to his chest.

"You're such a dork, Ryuuji," she grinned.

He grinned back.

"Hey, Ryuuji...?"

"Yeah,"

"I really did want pistachio."

"Oh shut up, you."

 _A/N: I saw the everyone-thinks-taiga's-good-luck-for-some-reason episode and I had to do a small piece on it especially because I've been asked to do a second chapter! Hope you liked it and feel free to review if you'd like to!_


	3. Chapter 3

"I'm home!" Ryuuji called from behind a mountain of bright packages and bags, keys loose in his hand.

"Ryuuji!" Taiga exclaimed, scrambling from the living room _kotatsu_ where she had been sitting with Yasu and Takeshi, assailing her husband and the shopping.

"Taiga!" Ryuuji huffed in annoyance. "Hey watch it! Cut it out!"

But Taiga wasn't listening. She was laughing and rattling a small package from the top of the pile.

"What did you get me?" she asked eagerly.

There was a dull double tinkling sound like earrings knocking together.

Ryuuji snatched the package back.

"Stop acting like a kid," he said. "And you know you're not supposed to know until Christmas so chill already. Jeez..."

He set the presents down as Yasu made her sleepy way over with Takeshi wriggling in her arms.

"Welcome back, Ryuu..." she yawned. "I hope you didn't forget your poor old mother."

"No, I got yours here, Yasu..." Ryuuji said, handing her some thin packages that seemed to hold clothing.

Takeshi wormed his way down as she took them.

"And me, papa? Me?" He tugged at his father's pant leg, smiling up at him.

He was five now, and in kindergarten. He was proud of himself for learning the first _hiragana_ characters, a, e, i, o, that year and was constantly writing them everywhere. He was carrying a piece of construction paper with dozens of sloppy A's.

Ryuuji picked his son up and ruffled his hair.

"Yep, you too, pal," he said, "But you have to be very good, or you won't get presents from Santa too. Okay, Taka?"

Takeshi nodded seriously. "Yes, papa. I'll be good. Right, Gamma Yasu?"

"That's right!" Yasu chirped happily. "Ryuuji, Taka's been a very good boy. Show your papa what you did, Taka."

"Okay!"

Takeshi ran to the _kota_ _tsu_ and everyone sat around it.

"Look, Papa!"

He thrust a paper in his father's face. It had crayon stick drawings, one tall with eyes like an _oni_ demon, a short one with long yellow hair, one that looked to be sleeping and a small one.

"That's you, Papa," he announced proudly, pointing to the one with demonic eyes.

"Uh, yeah...great..."

"And mama, and gamma Yasu!" he finished happily.

"It was his homework project," Taiga explained "He had to draw his family. Great, right?"

"Is that a comment on my eyes?"

"What do you mean? It looks just like you, Ryuuji."

"Hey!"

They all laughed. Ryuuji started laughing too.

"Okay, okay. Well, finished homework deserves some hot chocolate."

"Oh! Hook me up too, Ryuuji!" Taiga said waving her arms.

"Oh, me to, Ryuu..." Yasu drawled with another yawn.

Ryuuji sighed. "Okay, okay...just all you guys wait here..."

He went into the kitchen and fixed four steaming mugs of cocoa.

He carefully brought them back to the _kotatsu_ and they all drank until Yasu and Takeshi fell into blissful _kotatsu_ \- warmed sleep leaving Taiga and Ryuuji to sip their hot drinks together in companionable silence.

"Do you think it's okay?" Taiga asked abruptly.

"Is what okay?"

Taiga looked down at her hands. "Telling him about Santa. He'll only be disappointed."

Ryuuji smiled softly and took her hand, gently making her set down her mug. With his other hand he stroked his son's shaggy black hair.

"You did. And you were happy. I think he's happy too." he look d fondly at Takeshi who was snoring and drooling in complete imitation of his grandmother. Then he gave his wife an adoring look.

Taiga smiled.

"So we let him believe a little longer?"

Taiga nodded.

"But no Catholic school. I draw the line at Catholic school."

Ryuuji laughed.

"Deal."

 _a/n: Taiga loves Christmas. I love Christmas. This chapter was inevitable! Even if it's almost June lol. I love the Christmas arc of Toradora, I love how Taiga adores the season. I also found it interesting, from a cultural standpoint that Taiga's family is apparently Catholic because that's so rare in Japan. Her going to Catholic school as a kid is a really interesting character background given just how unusable it is in japan._

 _Thank you for reading and please feel free to leave a review if you feel so inclined!_


	4. Chapter 4

"Ah, no!" Ryuuji heard his son's almost cracking voice from his parents' room. Ryuuji cocked an eyebrow. He peaked into the room and gagged on laughter.

There was his son, tall for his eleven years and almost too skinny to be healthy and his bangs growing over his eyes and in the most comically large suit imaginable.

Ryuuji snorted. "Is that one of mine? I know you've grown a few centimeters these last few months but it'll be a while before you can fill that out. Here, let me help you."

He began to peel the coat away from the rock band t-shirt Takeshi was wearing under it.

Takeshi frowned, lifting his arms.

"But I need something to wear for commencement," he said. "The dress shirt Grandma Yasu got me last year doesn't fit me anymore.

Takeshi was graduating from the sixth grade and going off to Junior High, the same one Ryuuji went to. Ryuuji, Taiga and Yasu couldn't have been more proud.

"Well this doesn't fit you either," Ryuuji chuckled, folding it. "Why were you raiding my closet anyway? We can get you a new suit, Taka."

"I thought," Takeshi blushed "It'd be nice to wear one of yours. You have cool clothes, pop."

Ryuuji smiled wryly. "Good lord, don't yet your grandma hear that. She'd critique our entire wardrobes for an hour and make us get all new clothes."

Takeshi gave a sour face as Ryuuji put the suit back.

"Why was there a cut on it, pop?"

"What?" Ryuuji froze.

"Yeah, a cut. Like you cut a piece off with scissors. Why?"

"...It was...your grandfathers." his father said stiffly.

"Grandpa Takasu?"

"No. Aisaka."

Takeshi's eyes grew wide. "Old man Aisaka? Really?"

Takeshi knew his mother's father wasn't on speaking terms with either of his parents. He remembered in the second grade he had come to see his grandson and his father had shouted at him until he left. His mother had even brought out her practice sword.

"Why do you have his stuff?"

"Your mom gave it to me. After he abandoned her again," Ryuuji spat bitterly.

"Did the old man really leave mom on her own?"

"Yes."

"And you took care of her?"

"Yeah," Ryuuji laughed "I was the neighbor boy who knew how to cook, so she latched on to me. I should have known we were going to get married once she started spending every night eating dinner with us."

Ryuuji took his son's shoulders.

"Don't wear that creep's clothes. We'll get you your own suit, hows that?"

Takeshi nodded gravely.

When the ceremony began he stood to sing the school song with everyone else in a smart blue blazer and cream dress shirt. It suited him.

He decided as the song ended and he waved at his crying mother and grandmother and his grinning father, that with the new clothing he would be a new man. His own man. Not Old Man Aisaka. Not grandpa Takesu. Maybe not even his pop."

Well, maybe Pop.

Because if a neighbor girl was alone and hungry, he would definitely ask her for dinner.

 _A/n: I guess this has become a sort of Taiga and Ryuuji's son growing up kind of story! I loved Ryuuji's loyalty to Taiga when her father turned out to be horrible. A little note on Takeshi's garde status: Japan uses the junior high system, which means elementary school is k-6, junior high is 7-9, and high is 10-12. That is why Takeshi's graduating elementary in grade six. Thanks for reading and feel free to commment if you want!_


	5. Chapter 5

"Why did grandpa put magazines in his shirts?"

Ryuuji looked up from the morning paper and his breakfast of rice and eggs.

His sixteen year old son was lounging opposite him at the low table. He had an earbud in one ear, and Ryuuji could hear rock music faintly from his cellphone. Takeshi was holding up a _Jump_ magazine appraising like he was trying to figure out its value in a shirt.

"I...I don't think I should tell you," Ryuuji stammered. His son did this sometimes. Asked bombshell questions with no warning. He had almost had a heart attack when he had asked about sex.

"Aw, why not?" Takeshi whined, rolling onto his back.

"Because," Ryuuji said firmly. "I'm your father. Plus, how did you know that anyway?"

"Grandma Yasu always says so," Takeshi explained. "She never told me why. Please tell me?"

Ryuuji sighed and put his newspaper down. "Okay, but you have to swear never to tell anyone. And remember that it doesn't reflect badly on anyone in this house. Okay?"

Takeshi nodded eagerly "Uh-huh!"

"Your grandpa Takasu..." Ryuuji forced out "Was Yakuza. He kept magazines in his shirt in case someone tried to stab him."

Takeshi's eyes widened. "Yakuza? He was Yakusza?"

"Yes."

"With tattooes and everything?"

"Yes."

"Wow," Takshi breathed, clearly impressed.

"It is not 'wow'" Ryuuji snapped. Takeshi flinched and Ryuuji's expression softened.

"I'm sorry, Taka," he said, running his hands through his hair. "It's just..."

He sighed.

"I just spent a lot of time running away from what he was. What everyone thought _I_ was. Everyone but your mom and uncle Kita thought I was some kind of gangster. Because I have your grandpa's eyes."

"But your eyes are cool!"

Ryuuji laughed. "You wouldn't thin so if you had them."

Takeshi rolled his eyes. "Duh I would. Everyone treats me like..." he stopped himself.

"Like what?"

Takeshi huffed. "Like a wimp. Everyone at school thinks I'm a push over because I'm short like mom."

He had grown fast and was tall for his age when he was younger but by junior high he had just stopped growing and other boys continued to grow past him.

Ryuuji gave him a sympathetic look. "Well your mom took care of that problem. With her fists." Ryuuji said wryly.

"Hey, thanks, dad."

"For what?"

Takeshi smiled "if grandpa was so tough...maybe I can be tough too. Maybe not in the same way. I don't wanna kill people or like throw them in rivers with cement or whatever it is Yakuza do. But maybe if I try...do you think mom would let me join the kendo team?"

Ryuuji smiled too.

"I think she'd love that."

"Great! Thanks dad!" Takeshi scrambled up and ran to the door. "Gotta go!"

He grabbed his uniform and buttoned it as he ran out.

"Hey! Clean your dishes!" Ryuuji shouted out the window. But his son was already gone.

He sighed. Just then Taiga came into the room.

"Morning. What were you yelling about?"

"Oh, morning. Nothing, Taka just being a brat. Say, Taiga..."

"Yeah?"

"What would you say to Takeshi joining the kendo team?"

Taiga grinned widely. She pulled her wooden practice sword from her coat and held it.

"Id say we have some mother-son bonding time coming up,"

 _a/n: Yasu's anecdote about Ryuuji's dad was so funny and would probably raise alot of questions for Ryuuji's son hence this chapter. I figured Taiga and Ryuuji's kid would have the opposite problem as Ryuuji: he'd be so small and good natured everyone would think he was soft. And of course Ryuuji would try to solve this by nurturing support and Taiga by violence lol._

 _Thank you for reading and feel free to review if you feel like it!_


	6. Chapter 6

_Dear Mom and Dad_ Takeshi wrote. He paused and looked out of his dorm room window. A Hawaiian beach met his gaze, and he could hear the beachgoers enjoying the warmth, even though it was the middle of fall.

 _It feels so great to write Japanese again! In our ESL classes we have to write and write all in English. It's worse than high school! But I am enjoying college and I'm enjoying America. I'm thinking of visiting the mainland for winter vacation. I would come home but I don't think I'll have time. But Hawaii is great. There are so many Japanese here! Most second or even third generation or more, but still. I can speak Japanese even when I can't write it._

He looked fondly at his dorm mate, Akira Aida, fast asleep on the opposite bed. He was from Hokaido, nowhere near where Takeshi was from but they both appreciated having a Japanese friedn to talk to.

 _At the very least it's nice not getting odd looks because I'm Asian. There are plenty here. I was worried I'd be alone._

From a cage there was a squaling racket and Takeshi smiled. He grabbed a bag of birdseed and poured some in.

 _Oh, yeah, I also got a pet. A bird! I named her Inko after the bird you had, Dad!_

A girl passed his open dorm room and smiled.

"Hi Takeshi!" She grinned. She was a hawaiin native,a girl in one of his busisness classes.

"H-hi...Nani...ho-how are...you?" he stuttered through his English blushing.

"Good luck on finals! See you in class!"

"Y-yes!"

She turned to leave but he said

"Um...wait, please!"

She gave him a questioning look.

"You maybe...anno...Would you maybe...wish…ah, would you _like_ to get coffee some time?"

She beamed. "I'd love to! Tell me when in class tomorrow, okay?"

"Yes!"

When she left he looked blushingly at his paper. He wrestled with telling his parents about her. In the end he wrote

 _I met a girl. We have a date. You would like her. She's American, Hawaiin native, but she's grown up in a Japanese neighborhood. She even knows some Japanese. I really think you'd like her mom, because she's on the fencing team."_

Inko squawked and Takeshi grinned at her.

"You think so too, Inko, huh?" he said in japanese.

He looked at his watch. Ten minutes until his bio class.

He'd have to end his letter. He thought.

 _I really like my life here, mom. Dad. Thank you for giving me this opportunity._

He bowed low to the paper. It wasn't the same as bowing to his parents but it had to count for something.

 _I know, Mom, you have painful memories of your time abroad, because it meant you were away from Dad. But for me...for me...it's like my world has opened up. I really like it here._

He repeated.

 _I have to go to class now. Give Grandma Yasu my love. And dad, kick Old man Aisaka for me. Ha!_

That was an inside joke between him and his father. Whenever he told his father to give his regards he also told him to kick his grandfather.

 _Your loving son,_

 _Takeshi_

he folded it up, kicked Akira awake, and ran to class.

What he didn't say in his letter was that he planned on staying in America after graduation. Specially if his date with Nani went well.

He didn't know how his parents would think about this. But he knew he could do it. Because he was a dragon. Because he was a tiger.

A/N: I just liked the idea of Ryuuji and Taiga's son going to school in America...and of curse getting a bird! Thank you for reading and thank you for reviewing!


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